Created out of my passionate hatred for bigoted non-smokers who can't help themselves but go on an arrogant tirade about the evils of smoking every time they encounter a smoker, this is a place where lovers of tobacco can gather without prejudice.

Venomous wrote:Tell me about it. Even in the last ten years or so since I started smoking, cigarette prices have increased drastically... I can't imagine what it would be like for the previous generation, having once paid less than half what they have to today for a pack of smokes...

My mum quit smoking when it went up to $2 a packet. $2. TWO FUCKING DOLLARS! Damnit all, I want cartons! $20 bucks a carton, baby, aw yeah!

Venomous wrote:The whole thing baffles and sickens me, though. I mean, completely aside from the blatant infringements on our personal choice and freedoms - if I want to smoke, knowing full well the health risks, then whose fucking business is it besides mine?! - but as you said, considering the prices, and hefty taxes, on cigarettes these days, and the number of smokers, what is it going to do to our economy to ban smoking almost outright, as they appear to be trying to do? It only means that they're going to jack up the prices/taxes on everything else to compensate. And besides, with it only being a matter of time until cigarettes are all but illegal anyway, it's just going to open up a whole new world of black market tobacco sales anyway... you think millions of people who have been smoking their whole lives are just going to roll over and say "Can't smoke anymore? Oh well, I quit then!"... =P

It truly seems to me that they really do think that... fucking morons we elect into office... I bet the fucker in charge of all things tobacco-related have never smoked in his life. What they need is one of us on the board.

"Yes, drop the cartons in price by half, ID *everyone* regardless of how old they look and get the fuck out of my office and go make me some paint-stripping strength coffee to go with these beautiful fucking durries!"

Besides, whatever happened to natural selection? They should be encouraging us to smoke! The smokers will inherit the Earth, mu'fuckers!

Uhhhhhhh... bite me? Nah, it's true, I've smoked some pretty bad brands for the sake of smoking but we both come from different economic backgrounds; I was taught to shop for bargains, so I bought the cheaper smokes. Mind you now, my Camels are undre $10 a pack at my local 24-hr Coles. Sweeeeeeet...

I don't think we've come from very different economical backgrounds at all, I just think we've been brought up to have different attitudes towards finances and spending.

When I was a baby, my family was just the stereotypical middle-class family - two parents, two kids, two cars, two cats. Then as I grew up, things got better for us, to the point where we were almost upper middle-class for a while - owned a house on a little bit of land in a nice area, my father drove a Mercedes, and so on. Then we hit a rough patch, lost the house, the cars, my parents had to go back to renting a crappy little three bedroom house and driving a rusted out second hand car. Then my old man died, and things got even worse, but then my mom opened her business, and things got much better. Not long after, I moved out of home, and went through the whole spectrum all over again, from living in a shitty one-room bedsitter apartment in the absolute worst part of town where neighbors would jump my fence and climb up the pipes by my one window to break into their upstairs apartments, to living it up interstate in my own place with six months rent paid up front and a very active social life, and everywhere in between.

I've never lived in a gutter and eaten discarded french fries out of trash cans, and I've never eaten caviar with a silver spoon either, but I've lived in every part of the middle-class scale, and one thing has never changed for me - I won't buy a nasty, harsh, rank, burns the back of your throat, tastes like urine pack of cigarettes just because they're one, or at best two dollars cheaper than the best domestic brands money can buy. =P

Some people will say that that extra dollar really adds up in the long run if you're a heavy smoker, but I say I'd still rather nine packs of the good stuff than ten that make me feel sick. =P

Venomous wrote:I don't think we've come from very different economical backgrounds at all, I just think we've been brought up to have different attitudes towards finances and spending.

Only a quick note, as I'm off to work: I don't think my family were *ever* in a middle class. Maybe before my brother came into the picture, but we were always struggling, mum was always stretching money further than it should've gone (she's very good like that) and dad was never making enough, in his opinion. They never owned a home, only ever had one car at a time (at some point, we didn't even have one)... oh, and no cats. My parents detest the kitties.

Tyranny wrote:Only a quick note, as I'm off to work: I don't think my family were *ever* in a middle class. Maybe before my brother came into the picture, but we were always struggling, mum was always stretching money further than it should've gone (she's very good like that) and dad was never making enough, in his opinion. They never owned a home, only ever had one car at a time (at some point, we didn't even have one)... oh, and no cats. My parents detest the kitties.

I think we just have different understandings of the definition. As far as my use of the terminology goes, unless you've lived in a trailer or worse, or been homeless, had no member of the family employed at any given time (ie. whole family is living off one person's welfare), you've ever had to steal/beg/busk for food or have simply gone without food, then yeah, you're still middle class. Definately lower middle class by the sounds of things, but if you had a roof over your head (even a rented house), a car, at least one employed parent, you were enrolled in a school of some sort, etc., then yeah, that's still in the middle class bracket by my scale.

As I mentioned before, my family has at times been in the same boat you describe above, but still, we never went without food, or a roof over our heads.

Yeah, mum was good for that. She always made sure we were well-fed, clothed and housed. There were times where dad wasn't employed at all and those times were extremely tight...

But yes, this has nothing to do with smoking!

DAILY RANT # 561: Fucking bitch doctor! Seems I have a throat infection. Doc asks me if I'm a smoker, I tell her in all honesty that I haven't had a smoke since I got sick (not because I can handle it, it just doesn't *taste* as good...) and she was fine with that... but she had to fucking ruin it, didn't she? She hands me my medical certificate and under her breath: "You know you should quit smoking..." AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!! If I'd have wanted your opinion on my smoking I'd have fucking asked for it! Know I should quit? Be fucked I will! I'll smoke as long as I damn well please and not you nor any other fucker will say otherwise! URGH! Fucking bitch!

Hmm, the whole class debate thingy is a bit relative, but it seems as though you're defining everyone as 'middle class', Venomous (hehe), except for those people which are homeless and so on, and I'm not sure if that's accurate. But, meh, not really on topic or important to what I'm about to say in any case
Yeah, those trifling doctors give me the shits, too. I mean, I know they mean well, but they always give you the third degree even if you're asking for something really routine. I had a throat infection, and this quack felt the need to check my ears and all my gland areas as well! And not just the ones in my neck (which would've been understandable), but the ones under my arms etc. It's total crap... I hate asking for a pill prescription for the same reason. Even if I'd been getting it for months, they'd still ask the same questions about safe sex etc. Grr! Get the crap out of my business...
Hmm, my virginal post seems to have nothing to do with anything. Well, just to spice things up, I'm not a smoker, so I don't know what you lot are whinging about half the time Nah, I think the pub/club smoking ban was way too far - it is really easy to avoid smoke if you really want to. AH, who knows, but it's not at all surprising that the Government is once again biting the hand that feeds it...

Renae the Boozehound wrote:Hmm, the whole class debate thingy is a bit relative, but it seems as though you're defining everyone as 'middle class', Venomous (hehe), except for those people which are homeless and so on, and I'm not sure if that's accurate. But, meh, not really on topic or important to what I'm about to say in any case :)

Jesus, that's a little ignorant, isn't it Renae? =)

Read the thread and double-check what I said - in a previous post, I implied that if you have permanent housing of some sort (rental house included, but not including trailer park, sleeping on your buddy's couch, or being homeless/living on the street), at least one member of your household has a steady income, even if it's not as much as you'd like it to be, if some mode of transportation is available besides your own two feet, then you're middle class - though possible lower middle class if you just barely scrape in the criteria.

Scum living in trailers on welfare with no job and no car are lower-class, but they're not homeless either. And if you have excess disposable income, household staff, more than two luxury cars, and people other than fast food attendants address you as "Sir" or "Madam", then you're upper-class.

So by what vivid stretch of the imagination did you infer that I was saying that everybody who isn't homeless is middle-class, pray tell?

Renae the Boozehound wrote:I hate asking for a pill prescription for the same reason. Even if I'd been getting it for months, they'd still ask the same questions about safe sex etc. Grr! Get the crap out of my business...

You ever think that maybe your GP knows you by now, and he/she knows that you're a promiscuous monkey slut who would have wanton sex with anything equipped with a phallus at the drop of a pin, and maybe he/she is concerned for your safety? =P

I mean hell, if I was your doctor, I'd feel I was being derelict in my duty not giving you an STD test every single time you came in. =P

Renae the Boozehound wrote:Hmm, my virginal post seems to have nothing to do with anything.

Well, you already fit right in here perfectly then, don't you dear? Welcome to the pointless world of Social Deviancy... =)